C/C++ efficient bit array

Since you mention C as well as C++, I'll assume that a C++-oriented solution like boost::dynamic_bitset might not be applicable, and talk about a low-level C implementation instead. Note that if something like boost::dynamic_bitset works for you, or there's a pre-existing C library you can find, then using them can be better than rolling your own.

Warning: None of the following code has been tested or even compiled, but it should be very close to what you'd need.

To start, assume you have a fixed bitset size N. Then something like the following works:

typedef uint32_t word_t;
enum { WORD_SIZE = sizeof(word_t) * 8 };

word_t data[N / 32 + 1];

inline int bindex(int b) { return b / WORD_SIZE; }
inline int boffset(int b) { return b % WORD_SIZE; }

void set_bit(int b) { 
    data[bindex(b)] |= 1 << (boffset(b)); 
}
void clear_bit(int b) { 
    data[bindex(b)] &= ~(1 << (boffset(b)));
}
int get_bit(int b) { 
    return data[bindex(b)] & (1 << (boffset(b));
}
void clear_all() { /* set all elements of data to zero */ }
void set_all() { /* set all elements of data to one */ }

As written, this is a bit crude since it implements only a single global bitset with a fixed size. To address these problems, you want to start with a data struture something like the following:

struct bitset { word_t *words; int nwords; };

and then write functions to create and destroy these bitsets.

struct bitset *bitset_alloc(int nbits) {
    struct bitset *bitset = malloc(sizeof(*bitset));
    bitset->nwords = (n / WORD_SIZE + 1);
    bitset->words = malloc(sizeof(*bitset->words) * bitset->nwords);
    bitset_clear(bitset);
    return bitset;
}

void bitset_free(struct bitset *bitset) {
    free(bitset->words);
    free(bitset);
}

Now, it's relatively straightforward to modify the previous functions to take a struct bitset * parameter. There's still no way to re-size a bitset during its lifetime, nor is there any bounds checking, but neither would be hard to add at this point.

boost::dynamic_bitset if the length is only known in run time.

std::bitset if the length is known in compile time (although arbitrary).

I've written a working implementation based off Dale Hagglund's response to provide a bit array in C (BSD license).

https://github.com/noporpoise/BitArray/

Please let me know what you think / give suggestions. I hope people looking for a response to this question find it useful.

This posting is rather old, but there is an efficient bit array suite in C in my ALFLB library.

For many microcontrollers without a hardware-division opcode, this library is EFFICIENT because it doesn't use division: instead, masking and bit-shifting are used. (Yes, I know some compilers will convert division by 8 to a shift, but this varies from compiler to compiler.)

It has been tested on arrays up to 2^32-2 bits (about 4 billion bits stored in 536 MBytes), although last 2 bits should be accessible if not used in a for-loop in your application.

See below for an extract from the doco. Doco is http://alfredo4570.net/src/alflb_doco/alflb.pdf, library is http://alfredo4570.net/src/alflb.zip

Enjoy,
Alf

//------------------------------------------------------------------
BM_DECLARE( arrayName, bitmax);
        Macro to instantiate an array to hold bitmax bits.
//------------------------------------------------------------------
UCHAR *BM_ALLOC( BM_SIZE_T bitmax); 
        mallocs an array (of unsigned char) to hold bitmax bits.
        Returns: NULL if memory could not be allocated.
//------------------------------------------------------------------
void BM_SET( UCHAR *bit_array, BM_SIZE_T bit_index);
        Sets a bit to 1.
//------------------------------------------------------------------
void BM_CLR( UCHAR *bit_array, BM_SIZE_T bit_index);
        Clears a bit to 0.
//------------------------------------------------------------------
int BM_TEST( UCHAR *bit_array, BM_SIZE_T bit_index); 
        Returns: TRUE (1) or FALSE (0) depending on a bit.
//------------------------------------------------------------------
int BM_ANY( UCHAR *bit_array, int value, BM_SIZE_T bitmax); 
        Returns: TRUE (1) if array contains the requested value (i.e. 0 or 1).
//------------------------------------------------------------------
UCHAR *BM_ALL( UCHAR *bit_array, int value, BM_SIZE_T bitmax);
        Sets or clears all elements of a bit array to your value. Typically used after a BM_ALLOC.  
        Returns: Copy of address of bit array
//------------------------------------------------------------------
void BM_ASSIGN( UCHAR *bit_array, int value, BM_SIZE_T bit_index);
        Sets or clears one element of your bit array to your value.
//------------------------------------------------------------------
BM_MAX_BYTES( int bit_max); 
        Utility macro to calculate the number of bytes to store bitmax bits.
        Returns: A number specifying the number of bytes required to hold bitmax bits.
//------------------------------------------------------------------

You can use std::bitset

int main() {
  const bitset<12> mask(2730ul); 
  cout << "mask =      " << mask << endl;

  bitset<12> x;

  cout << "Enter a 12-bit bitset in binary: " << flush;
  if (cin >> x) {
    cout << "x =        " << x << endl;
    cout << "As ulong:  " << x.to_ulong() << endl;
    cout << "And with mask: " << (x & mask) << endl;
    cout << "Or with mask:  " << (x | mask) << endl;
  }
}